Shin woke up in a really peculiar place. He looked around to observe and found out that instead of a white room or a place with a void of colors, this time he had been dropped into a mysterious expanse. The place appeared to be filled with white mist and was quite familiar to him, but he wasn’t able to recall it, even though he had quite a good memory.
He tried to move around, but he noticed that his own body appeared translucent. He was dazed at first, but after a bit of thinking, he came up with two possible explanations. “Either this is a space inside the cube and I have entered it with only my soul, or I am inside my own soul.”
He came up with the first possibility because he entered this place as soon as he touched the cube, and the spirit said that he would meet the creator’s consciousness here. The second one was because of the familiarity and the fact that he had once heard that at a higher level, one can access their own soul. Though he had doubts on either of the possibilities being true, for various reasons.
Suddenly, he heard a mystifying voice, “You are partially correct about being inside your soul. I commend you for thinking about that possibility, even though you are from a world, where the system of power has nothing to do with souls and its usage yet. ”
Shin looked around and tried to locate the source of the voice. He looked around but couldn’t find it anywhere. While he was searching for the voice, he was able to make out some of the boundaries of this strange space he was in. It looked like a sphere and he was in the absolute centre of it.
“You won’t be able to find me, as I am consciously concealing myself. But this is for your own benefit, as if you see me, you will definitely die.” The voice paused for a second and continued, “Don’t take it as me boasting, but I am incomprehensibly beautiful, and your mortal mind would not be able to comprehend it, thus shattering into pieces, if you see me right now.”
“Are you Ivis Luminous?” Shin inquired while still looking around to find the source, in spite of learning the information about him dying, if he ever sees her. However, he wasn’t even able to pinpoint the exact direction much less find the source as felt her voice coming from everywhere.
“Yes, I am, child, or should I call you Shin Akatsuki?” admitted the voice or to be exact, the fragment of the consciousness of the higher dimensional entity known as Ivis Luminous.
“You can call me Shin. And what did you mean by saying I am partially correct? Where are we exactly, Senior?” Shin gave up trying to find her and then focused on the more important question.
“Do not call me senior, makes me feel old. Call me by my name… just my name.” Her revulsion to that title was made very clear to Shin from just her tone.
“As you wish, I..vis,” Shin said with a weird look, not sure if he should be intrigued or confused. But well, everyone had their preferences and he should not judge them based on that. Still, he was having a hard time referring to her by name, as he had become accustomed to call those powerful than himself with respect and she was definitely that and more. “So, Ivis, where are we?”
“We are inside your ‘TrueSoul.’ Don’t mistake it with a normal soul, okay? To make it clearer, let me give you an example. So, you know your soul resides in your body in an ethereal form, right? The placement varies from person to person. Some have it in their heart, some in their brain, while some in their lower abdomen, middle of the chest, or neck.”
“Now consider your soul as an apple. The skin of the apple is the slight protection the soul has. The flesh of the apple is comparable to the normal soul which only high-level cultivators from your plane have access to. It contains all the memories and even the ego of the soul. Lastly, the seeds of an apple are comparable to parts of the ‘TrueSoul.’ These parts are not accessible by anyone under the absolute peak of the existence. Once someone has access to these parts, they would be able to bring them together to form their TrueSoul.”
“Once they form the TrueSoul, the path to higher dimension opens up. Now with the help of most of my power that I had stored inside the cube, I have already formed your TrueSoul, the moment you slipped your energy into the cube or what I call the SYSTEM. Now you would be able to begin your journey to become a higher dimensional entity. Since you don’t have the necessary qualifications, this cube will act as a sort of an assistant for you.”
“So, what should I exactly do?” Shin questioned, amazed by what the cube and Ivis had done for him. He had literally skimmed so many steps in the cultivation journey and reached the final destination. His luck and fortune, which was so bad from the start of the trials, has now done a turnaround and rewarded him with this jackpot. Now, there is another new journey waiting for him which, would at the end make him a higher dimensional entity and he was very intrigued on what he needed to do for that.
“You would be now sent into ‘The Dream Cradle’ which is a hyperality where you have to live multiple lives, learn skills, and then upload them into your true soul. Mind you, you can only upload one skill per plane. And the maximum number of skills you can upload into your TrueSoul is twelve.”
“Wait! Wait! Wait!....You are going too fast.” Shin hurriedly stopped Ivis from speaking any further as he did not even comprehend what she just said. Therefore, he asked, “What is a Hyperality? What are skills and what do you mean by living multiple lives.”
“Oh, pardon me. I forgot that you were not like me when I had first received the SYSTEM.” Shin heard the voice giggle as she continued, “Anyway, a hyperality is what you should call a collection of uncountable number of planes connected to each other and has something in common, be it their power system, purpose for existence, etc. There are exactly 333 hyperalities in all of existence and the one you were in, before you entered the trial, contained the planes that has cultivation as its power system.”
Okay, that was way too big of a knowledge for him to easily comprehend. She was talking about millions and millions of planes and because of his own understanding of what a plane is, based on what the spirit had mentioned to him earlier, his sense of reality was shattering and birthing anew at every single piece of information she was providing. However, Ivis continued her explanation without giving a crap about Shin state.
“Dream Cradle, on the other hand, have planes which are formed due to the imaginations of all beings which has come into actuality. The classic example of this is stories; stories that have been actually written in some or the other form. When one story is partially or completely written, millions of planes are formed containing the entire story inside of them, though each plane have their own twists and additions to the story. And, since there are uncountable number of stories in all of existence, there are uncountable number of planes in the Dream Cradle.”
Shin, this time easily understood what Ivis was explaining as she had included an easy example. He just wondered whether he would enter the planes that are based on the stories and myths that he had read during his lifetime.
“Dream Cradle is a special hyperality because only those who have unlocked their TrueSoul can enter it from outside. And it is the place where the entire process of transitioning to a higher dimension takes place for all of them.” Ivis paused for a little while to allow Shin to process the information. She then continued with something that she thought Shin would want to know, “Oh, and you don't have to worry about meeting these people because a plane only allows a single being with a TrueSoul to enter itself, with the exception of connected beings, about which you will learn during your journey.”
If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
“Did you comprehend all that I just said?” Ivis inquired and Shin nodded his head. There were still things he wanted to know but he would like to find out about them on his own. “Good, now onto your second question. I won't be explaining what skills are and I am sure that you got to experience them at least somewhat in the third trial. So, you should now explore them on your own to find out about them.”
“Now, about living multiple lives, you, Shin, would have to first enter a plane, in the Dream Cradle, then live a life, somehow form the skill you would upload after which you would travel to the next plane, create another skill, and go on and on. Additionally, you can never enter the same plane ever again, even any of the million planes that were formed based on the same story. However, there is a catch. When you enter a plane in the Dream Cradle, you would have to possess a body that is not your own. Therefore, other than the uploaded skill, you have literally lost everything else.”
“What? Does that mean I would lose my current cultivation when I enter my first plane?” Shin asked with shock and distress at the prospect of losing everything he had gained throughout his entire life.
“Unfortunately, yes. But look at the bright side, you would keep at least your memories safe and secure during the transition as they have uploaded into your TrueSoul already… And from what I have learned about you from the trial, you seek more knowledge than strength.” Ivis answered calmly.
Hearing this didn't really calm Shin down, but he understood that he had to sacrifice some things to gain greater things. Although he would be sad that he would be losing what he had gained after working so hard for thousands of years, he would be happy because he was getting something way, way better than just his humble cultivation level.
“Oh! by the way, no matter what body you possess, it would automatically change into your own appearance and absolutely no one would suspect a thing. Though, your appearance would still reflect your age or technically the age of the body you possess. Your Truesoul does that by passively manipulating fate, karma, and many other things. Therefore, you don’t have to worry about being found out by changes in your appearance or behaviour.”
“Now where was I before I started explaining you the intricate details… Ah, I was talking about skills. You can only upload 12 skills into your TrueSoul and this rule is applicable to everyone, no matter who it is, therefore make your choices wisely. But the process isn't over just by uploading a skill, you have to grow that skill as you travel different planes by adding on to it until you finally reach the highest classification of a skill. What these classifications are, you have to find out on your own.”
“There are many other privileges that you get for owning a TrueSoul, like being able to understand the basic languages of each plane you visit, immunity towards control or effect types of mental and soul attacks and supreme control over your skills, both the uploaded as well as unuploaded ones allowing you do to many things that the denizens of the planes cannot. However, there are some limitations such as being unable to tell any other being of your circumstances and the worst of all, being unable to produce your own children at least until you have completed your journey and have become a higher dimensional entity.”
“Those two drawbacks are not much of a limitation. At least I don't think they are.” Shin shrugged with nonchalance. “Maybe they would be a problem to much of a younger generation, but I am not one of them. I'm quite old and I've already produced great number of descendants who are living their life and thus not being able to produce children wouldn't really matter to me at all.”
“Maybe it was not for you, but it was quite a problem for me. After all, during my life as a lower dimensional existence, I focused more on my power and abilities and not on my instinctual desires to produce descendants. Therefore, when I was deprived of such ability, I became depressed and all, and it was a very dark time of my life. And even after I have become a higher dimensional existence, it is very-very hard to create children because of the uniqueness each of us have.”
“Anyway, I'm getting sidetracked here….and I don't even have much time remaining as the fragment of consciousness that I had left in the SYSTEM have slowly started vanishing as I had used my power to create your TrueSoul. Therefore, we don't have much time for talking. So, ask away your one last doubt and I will see if I can answer it.” Ivis declared putting a timer on their conversation. Well, it was more of one-sided explanation than a proper conversation.
The atmosphere became serious as Shin wanted to talk more with this person since he was curious about her and other higher dimensional existences, but then he shook his head and queried on the most important question he wanted to ask her since the beginning of their little discourse.
“Why are you giving me such an artifact? I know everything has a price in the world; nothing is free, so what’s the price?” Shin became very vigilant as he asked this.
“Yeah, it is not free. This artifact was given to me in the same way you got it. The difference was I was way more powerful. Anyhow, by giving this to you, all I doing is fulfilling my karma and the price you have to pay is do the same i.e. once you become a higher dimensional entity, you have to create a trial and leave this cube for someone else while leaving it completely up to fate with any personal interventions.
“Oh! You will have to fill this cube with energy while leaving a small part of your consciousness to be a guide similar to me. Don’t ever forget this information as this will be the only way to pay up the karmic debt you accumulated, while using the SYSTEM.”
Shin was still a little bit skeptical about all this but then he took a deep breath and nodded. He would be able to easily do that once he does become one higher dimensional existence. And well, karmic debt and other things were not something that he can currently understood and therefore he left it for his future self to worry about.
Nevertheless, he was quite surprised at the fact that Ivis was also someone similar to him who had received the SYSTEM. He had initially thought that she was the one who created the SYSTEM but it seems that someone else had created and it has been passed down again and again for who knows how long.
“Anyway, all the other information that you wish to know will be available through the SYSTEM as you unlock more and more of its functions.” As she said this, Shin who was distracted in his thoughts saw the cube suddenly appear in the center of his TrueSoul. Blue light emerged from it as he felt a weird sense of pull as his mind went blank.
The last thing he heard before going unconscious once again was Ivis speaking in her mystifying voice which he had come to enjoy. “Good luck in your Journey, Shin Akatsuki. May you reach the heavens.”
……
Somewhere far, far beyond the very existence itself,
A humanoid being stood eerily still, as if the very space and time was frozen. Their form was completely incomprehensible, yet if a normal mind perceived them, they would be seen as eldritch yet mystical.
The being was a titan, their form seemingly shifting between matter and nothingness. Their body was a mesh of flowing tendrils, spiralling outward like nebulae birthed in the heart of the universe. Each strand pulsated with a life of its own, lively hues of blue, purple, and magenta weaving together a tapestry of endless realms.
Spread across its towering form were radiant orbs, burning with the intensity of newborn stars. They hung like constellations within its frame, glowing softly yet exuding an undeniable power. Their head wore a crown of writhing energy, chaotic and flame-like, blazing with the light of a thousand supernovas. The being’s presence warped the space around it, as if the existence itself was under their command.
Behind them, an impossibly bright light originated, a halo of blinding white light that showered on their form. This light merged seamlessly with the orbs that floated in its orbit as though they were extensions of its essence rather than celestial bodies. The lower half of their form dissolved into cloud-like structures, mist-like tendrils blending with the void below.
Suddenly, there was a change in this mystic yet frozen spectacle. The uncountable number of floating orbs, that surrounded the being, started rotating on their axis’, at high speeds and now with such movement they started resembling like eyes. Again, there occurred another change, as this time the orbs started revolving around the being’s incomprehensible figure.
A booming voice erupted from the being and it contained a mystical charm, “Finally. My karmic obligation has predominantly concluded...I really didn’t think that the next fated person would arrive so soon. I am so very lucky, unlike my predecessor who had to wait for so long. Hahaha…”
If Shin would have been here, he would have easily recognised the being as Ivis Luminous, from just their voice. “Alright, now all that left is a final bit of touch up with my successor and I will be done. Hopefully, he becomes at least a four star like me so I can be proud of him….Maybe even a six star like that being!…..Nah I am overestimating him too much, even though he had good potential.”
After the being said this, all movement abruptly stopped, returning back to how it was certain moments before. Completely frozen. It was as if whatever happened was nothing but an illusion.